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Photo#540697
Red Mecaphesa - dorsal - Mecaphesa dubia - female

Red Mecaphesa - dorsal - Mecaphesa dubia - Female
Hornsby Bend, Austin, Travis County, Texas, USA
May 30, 2011
Size: 7.5mm
I took her from blooming Mexican Hat on 5-30. She made an egg sac in captivity on 6-9. The egg sac hatched on 6-28. I counted at least 73 spiderlings. I am attempting to raise them now, so I can photograph their instars and eventually ID an adult male.

I was unable to match her ventral epigynum to any of the drawings. Maybe someone else will have better luck. I'll be sending her to an expert for ID as well.

Here are entries for three of her offspring that I raised to adulthood (the first is the male):



She changed to orange after a week or two. After about a month the orange pattern had become much whiter. I'll post a shot of her white form when I get to processing those photos.

Images of this individual: tag all
Red Mecaphesa - dorsal - Mecaphesa dubia - female Red Mecaphesa - angled - Mecaphesa dubia - female Red Mecaphesa - rear - Mecaphesa dubia - female Red Mecaphesa - ventral - Mecaphesa dubia - female Red Mecaphesa - dorsal week 2 - Mecaphesa dubia - female Red Mecaphesa - dorsal week 2 - Mecaphesa dubia - female Red Mecaphesa - ventral epigynum - Mecaphesa dubia - female Red Mecaphesa - dorsal week 6 - Mecaphesa dubia - female

Dorsal epigyna of offspring
In preparation for posting a series of M. celer-like dorsal epigyna shots, I've posted shots of the dorsal epigynum of one of this spider's offspring (Mecaphesa dubia):


Joe, any new developments on this species?
What do you think of

 
Could be
They're certainly candidates. I have a strong understanding of the male of this species because I have ID'd so many of them, but I've only seen two females -- or rather, only positively identified two females. I really don't know which other adult Mecaphesa females might be similar to M. dubia. However, judging by the dominance of M. dubia (males) in central Texas, odds are that any similar Mecaphesa in central Texas would be M. dubia. I have not collected Thomisids in Kerrville or Corpus Christi, though.

 
Such a beautiful spider. Woul
Such a beautiful spider. Wouldn't seem unreasonable to me, based on location and appearance, that this is the same species. We'll see what Joe thinks.

-K

There are white forms too
I now have an adult male offspring of hers, and it's Mecaphesa dubia. I suspected this around molts 3 and 4, as the patterns were looking suspicious. Most of the offspring were raised on a folded piece of white paper, so I'm getting white spiders. I'll be posting photos of some white females as soon as they become adults. I've collected other white females in the field, which I suspect are also M. dubia.

I'll post an entry for the male when I get around to it, just so we have a strong record of how we know who she is. I made the positive determination by looking at the palps of a live male (difficult!). I'll also be posting photos of her offspring at various molts.

 
Mating crab spiders?
Hey, I have several white adult females collected from the field, still live, not offspring of this spider. Maybe I should try mating them with these new males? Any suggestions on how I go about doing that? Would we know that the females were of this species if they did mate?

 
red mecaphesa
Very nice. I doubt we would know for sure if they were the same species, but you might just want to stick them together to see what happens. So females can be white to red... changing color just like M. vatia. Good to know. Any other colors?

 
Yes, nice images, Joe. ßK
Yes, nice images, Joe.

ßK

Moved
Moved from Mecaphesa.

Moved
Moved from Spiders.

 
I have a penultimate male
One of her offspring is already a penultimate male. I'll have an ID for her soon.

 
I'll have an ID for her soon
Cool! You are doing great things with these crab spiders.

Gorgeous spider. Any ideas? D
Gorgeous spider. Any ideas? Difficult to see much in your epigynum image (is it slightly from rear)? You will have to dissect the epigynum, won't you?

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

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